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3
THE GARLAND: A GIRL TENDING FLOWERS 1866
SIR
EDWARD COLEY BURNE-JONES, Bt.
1833-1898
Gouache,
76.2 x 46 (30 x 18) Signed and dated, EBJ 1866 (lower left).
Provenance:
Charles Augustus Howell; William Graham, sale Christie's 2
April 1886, (145), bought Agnew for 70 gns; Arthur Tooth and
Sons by 1898: Cecil French.
Exhibited:
New Gallery, Exhibition of the Works of Sir Edward Burne-Jones,
Bart, 1898-9 (26); Fulham 1967 (3); Sheffield 1971 (66);
Arts Council 1975 (195); Fulham, 1983 (24); Rome, 1986 (16).
Literature:
Bell, 1892, p.39; Sewter, I, p.30, repr. fig. 268; II. pp.103-4.
A
young woman, wearing a long, loose, red gown, stands centrally,
back to the viewer, with scarved head turned in profile to
the left. Both her arms reach to the left where she tends
a rose which has been trained up a pale pole bound with blue
ribbon. The scene is set in a fortified courtyard.
One
of an unfinished series of six figures of women with flowers
which Burne-Jones designed as a set, under the title The
Garland, in 1866. They were adapted from his stained glass
designs for the six Garland Weavers for the Green Dining
Room in the South Kensington Museum, commissioned from Morris,
Marshall, Faulkner & Co. in 1866, which is still in situ in
the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Charles
Augustus Howell (1840-90), the first owner of the picture,
was a devious and unscrupulous charmer who was employed as
Ruskin's secretary between 1865-70. He was deputed by Ruskin
to assist Burne-Jones, often acting as intermediary between
painter and patrons, and was probably, with the exception
of Morris, the latter's closest friend between 1866 and 1868
although they were later estranged. He was however not above
stealing paintings and was involved in the production of forgeries
of Burne-Jones and Rossetti drawings.
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